Constructive Many-one Reduction from the Halting Problem to Semi-unification (Extended Version)

Semi-unification is the combination of first-order unification and first-order matching. The undecidability of semi-unification has been proven by Kfoury, Tiuryn, and Urzyczyn in the 1990s by Turing reduction from Turing machine immortality (existence of a diverging configuration). The particular Tu...

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Veröffentlicht in:Logical methods in computer science Jg. 19, Issue 4
1. Verfasser: Dudenhefner, Andrej
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Logical Methods in Computer Science e.V 08.12.2023
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ISSN:1860-5974, 1860-5974
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Zusammenfassung:Semi-unification is the combination of first-order unification and first-order matching. The undecidability of semi-unification has been proven by Kfoury, Tiuryn, and Urzyczyn in the 1990s by Turing reduction from Turing machine immortality (existence of a diverging configuration). The particular Turing reduction is intricate, uses non-computational principles, and involves various intermediate models of computation. The present work gives a constructive many-one reduction from the Turing machine halting problem to semi-unification. This establishes RE-completeness of semi-unification under many-one reductions. Computability of the reduction function, constructivity of the argument, and correctness of the argument is witnessed by an axiom-free mechanization in the Coq proof assistant. Arguably, this serves as comprehensive, precise, and surveyable evidence for the result at hand. The mechanization is incorporated into the existing, well-maintained Coq library of undecidability proofs. Notably, a variant of Hooper's argument for the undecidability of Turing machine immortality is part of the mechanization.
ISSN:1860-5974
1860-5974
DOI:10.46298/lmcs-19(4:22)2023